Toshiba Satellite S70A review

Ditch your desktop PC for this powerful replacement

The Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H is a versatile laptop that lives up to the title of 'desktop replacement'. Unlike a lot of other laptops, it doesn't focus on one set of features, such as attempting to be as thin and light as possible, or going for brute strength above all else. Instead, it treads a fine line, offering features that should appeal to a wide range of people, no matter what they'll be using their laptop for.

While other laptops that attempt this can sometimes end up being jack of all trades, master of none, the Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H manages to avoid this. It does a good job of every task you set it, occasionally excelling in certain areas.

The inclusion of a separate graphics card – whilst keeping the price at a realistic level – is a great move by Toshiba. It means that there is plenty of power for photo and video editing, along with the odd game. There are a few downsides though, as portability and media playback both take hits.

We like

The processor, RAM and graphics card are very generous considering the price, which makes the Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H an excellent choice for working on a number of intensive tasks at once. It's got a solid build quality, and it runs Windows 8.1 well.

We dislike

The Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H is far from the most portable laptop we've looked at. It's huge size and heavy weight makes it cumbersome to carry around, while the low battery life means you won't be using this unplugged for long. If you're using the Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H as a desktop replacement, and will usually be using it plugged in and on a desk, then this won't be too much of a problem. The amount of useless software preinstalled is also a pain, but can easily be removed.

Final verdict

If your old desktop PC is showing its age, and you'd like to replace it with something that's more compact and convienant, then you should definitely consider the Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H. It's powerful enough for most tasks, and if you'd like to check out the latest games – but you don't need all the graphics turned up to max – then you'll be very pleased with the Toshiba Satellite S70A-11H's performance. However, if you're after a more specific machine, then you should look elsewhere – especially if you want a laptop that you can take outside the house.